A MATURE 25...

Twenty-five  is the year of confusion. You are not a child anymore, but then you are not fully grown-up adult. It is that age that one need to make major decisions about one's life. Thirty, the year of grownups, is just around the corner. I was eighteen the other day, I mean, twenty-one was just a few months back! Like a creepy crawling creature, twenty five is here, without warning, without a signal.

Here are a few things that I think that every twenty-five year old and those aspiring to be twenty-five years old should have or do.

Have a savings plan : I know we all blow our money on shoes, a nice car, a nice jacket and oh my God, that jacket was super fabulous, I just had to have it! i know I should have saved but then how would I have had that form-hugging dress? Hey, I need to look fabulous. That is the-before-twenty-five-me talking. The two-months-away-from-twenty-five-me is thinking, oh crap! Thirty is just five years away, forty is less than twenty years away, and sixty seems closer still. I need to save! And to think of a retirement scheme (cringe).

Be in a steady relationship : Yes, the years of hook-ups are over. No more "chips fungas", one-night stands or just-for-fun-girl/boyfriends. This is Africa, and a (wo)man reaches an age that he/she needs to get serious, especially where relationships are concerned. Your aunties and uncles start introducing you to a friend's daughter/ son. The message they are passing to you? Your biological clock is ticking and they desperately need little nieces and nephews to pamper, or at least, an in-law they can bully.  Twenty- five without at least someone you aspire to spend the rest of your life with, according to African customs is too old, and don't say that I never warned you when you meet up with your friends who are happily married or in steady relationships, while you go home to a cold house or call up one of your many "fungas" to warm up the bed for you.

Move out of your parent's house: I know, you love your mother (and father). Your mother is the best cook. You don't know how to wash your clothes. You cant be bothered to do the dishes (after all, your parent's have a house-help). A wise man once said that, you can help a hungry man by bringing him fish everyday, but to really help that hungry man, show him how to fish and he will never go hungry again. Imagine yourself as the hungry man. Your parents are the fishermen who are constantly giving you fish. Don't you think that it is time to go fish for yourself? After all, all they have done is fish for you for twenty-five years. Who knows, you might find out that you inherited your mother's talent in the kitchen, and who said that cooking cannot be turned into a money making venture?

Get a serious job: Earning your own money is the greatest freedom a human being can have. Get a job. Stop asking your parents for money to top-up your phone. Stop asking for money to buy sanitary pads. Be independent. At twenty-five, be responsible, trek to look for that job you desire. Being a coach potato does not help much. As I earlier said, learn to fish and you will never go hungry.

Lastly, look forward to being twenty-five. You are going to enjoy it (I know, I am. I am not yet there, same way that I was not twenty a few years back). I had fun at twenty, twenty one, who said that I can't have fun at twenty-five? The only thing I am going to do different is to GET SERIOUS! Happy twenty-five years old.